Which Spyderco for my first?

Surfingringo said:
Welcome to the world of Spyderco OP. If you want to take your enjoyment of this hobby to the next level then your next purchase should be a Spyderco Sharpmaker! It will be the best "knife money" you've ever spent.
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Great advice from Gringo. Got mine a week or so ago and have been using it constantly. Made some knives I had sitting in drawers for years hair popping sharp after the sharp maker and stropping. I don't use my knives nearly as heavily as he does, but they do lose their fresh from the factory sharpness. Was easy to learn and is effective.
 
I have to say, for sharpeners, I am very very happy with my KO worksharp. I love the brightly polished convex edges I can get with hardly any work/time investment.
I'm imagining a 15dps mirror polished convex on the Manix...

3rdGenRigger said:
Then be prepared to become downright irate :D



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I'm flat out livid.
 
Only livid? I must be slipping lol.

And I also recommend a SharpMaker. Its main forte is for maintaining a microbevel IMO. Some guided systems can be easier to set a main bevel (And for polishing etc.), especially if you want to play with bevel angles, but for ease of touch ups on a microbevel, the SharpMaker is almost invaluable. Your knives can all be shaving sharp permanently with only seconds of attention every day, minutes if you really aggressively use your knife cutting tough mediums. Nothing I've seen comes close for quick touch ups, and it's also useful for sharpening other things like scissors etc.
 
Manix 2 was my first Spyderco. It's still one of my favorite knives. But once I used a Delica 4 FFG I became a believer.
 
What a tease!!! I just got a call from my LGS. When I saw their number pop up in my phone I got all giddy. Unfortunately, they were calling to tell me that per their Spyderco guy, the black G10, uncoated S30V Manix 2 is a very popular configuration (duh) and that it's backordered till "April." now, April could mean next week, or it could mean 5 weeks from now, depending on when in April.
Ugh. He offered that he ordered a bunch of other variations of the Manix or that I could cancel the order. I decided to stick with it. I'll hold out. It just means that I'll have to get another Spyderco to hold me over till then. (how's that for an example of the sickness!)
I'll keep ya' posted.
 
19-3ben said:
What a tease!!! I just got a call from my LGS. When I saw their number pop up in my phone I got all giddy. Unfortunately, they were calling to tell me that per their Spyderco guy, the black G10, uncoated S30V Manix 2 is a very popular configuration (duh) and that it's backordered till "April." now, April could mean next week, or it could mean 5 weeks from now, depending on when in April.
Ugh. He offered that he ordered a bunch of other variations of the Manix or that I could cancel the order. I decided to stick with it. I'll hold out. It just means that I'll have to get another Spyderco to hold me over till then. (how's that for an example of the sickness!)
I'll keep ya' posted.
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They are in stock and available at most online dealers. You may want to just be patient and wait though as it seems you are justifying your way into an excuse to pick up another while you wait. ;)
 
ether the PM2 or native 5 with the G10!as your probably going to get them sooner or later any way ! ether of these would qualify as a grate 1ST spyderco,mine was a native 5 that i use all the time,and i think the PM2 was 6th on my list! i ended up selling the camo version and kept the black/S30V,can't go vary bad with black version,and its a solid knife,man hope you have a grate birthday and whatever spyderco you get enjoy it,there all grate knifes.:thumbup:
 
When you handled the Manix 2 at that shop, what was your honest first impression of the CBBL?

I know many people who come from Benchmade ownership and first try the Manix 2 are quickly turned off by the stiffness and effort involved with its operation.

It takes a bit of a learning curve to hold onto the clip to operate it consistently 1 handed for both opening and closing, atleast for me.
Some start off stiffer than others, too, so keep in mind your fresh new one may take even more break-in time to feel like what the employees knife was like.
 
SpeedHoles said:
When you handled the Manix 2 at that shop, what was your honest first impression of the CBBL?

I know many people who come from Benchmade ownership and first try the Manix 2 are quickly turned off by the stiffness and effort involved with its operation.

It takes a bit of a learning curve to hold onto the clip to operate it consistently 1 handed for both opening and closing, atleast for me.
Some start off stiffer than others, too, so keep in mind your fresh new one may take even more break-in time to feel like what the employees knife was like.
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The one I tried belonged to the guy behind the counter, and is his EDC, so it may be pretty well broken in. It felt smoother, but heavier than the Axis lock on my BM Grip. To compare, imagine the difference between the trigger on a Glock (the BM Grip) vs. the DA trigger of a classic Smith and Wesson revolver. Lighter and grittier vs. heavy, but smooth.

That said, my BM hasn't been cleaned in longer than I'd care to admit, and I have no doubt that if I disassemble, clean and lube the action and then put it back together, it'll be much smoother. The Grip is also almost 10 years old, so it's not a fair new/new comparison. Who knows how it's changed in the last decade!
 
benben44 said:
The Manix 2 got me hooked.
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Caly 3 carbon fiber got me hooked. It was the very fist spyderco I had ever laid eyes on. I had to have it! I still do, in fact the wife took it to work today and has for the last month or so. I still haven't gotten around to picking up a manix but I really want one.

To the op.. the Delica should make you happy, it will be a bit different from the BM axis, but once you get the hang of it one hand operation is easy.
 
A really inexpensive in between fix would be the classic edc - UK pen knife slip joint.
 
cchu518 said:
A really inexpensive in between fix would be the classic edc - UK pen knife slip joint.
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Ya'know. this kills me. They make a nice slip joint, but dang-nabit! They use black FRN handles, which just don't do justice to the classic slip joint. Why not a jigged bone with brass or nickel bolsters, or even a nice G10 with bolsters? I mean, would it be such a crime to make something with modern awesomeness and the sypidie hole, but at the same time give a nod to the traditional so that it could look classy and innocuous in a business setting?
I think if i had one gripe with Spyderco it's their odd choices in handle material sometimes.
 
19-3ben said:
Ya'know. this kills me. They make a nice slip joint, but dang-nabit! They use black FRN handles, which just don't do justice to the classic slip joint. Why not a jigged bone with brass or nickel bolsters, or even a nice G10 with bolsters? I mean, would it be such a crime to make something with modern awesomeness and the sypidie hole, but at the same time give a nod to the traditional so that it could look classy and innocuous in a business setting?
I think if i had one gripe with Spyderco it's their odd choices in handle material sometimes.
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FRN is the future and moving forward.
Many of their target customers prefer this durable low maintenance material over other antiquated organic materials.

Although Spyderco is not in the business to make traditionals, they have done limited runs of various Japanese knives, and the Sage 4, in some of those materials though.
 
The g10 and Ti in s30v were limited runs they become available every now and then.

Almost forgot there's a carbon fiber one too.
 
SpeedHoles said:
FRN is the future and moving forward.
Many of their target customers prefer this durable low maintenance material over other antiquated organic materials.

Although Spyderco is not in the business to make traditionals, they have done limited runs of various Japanese knives, and the Sage 4, in some of those materials though.
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Oh, absolutely. I totally get that, and not only do i understand that most of their customers want it, I agree that it's a great material.

I just mean that for something with such a traditional name as "UK pen knife," it conjures up images of jigged bone, wood, polished brass, etc... The kind of thing that could come from a foundry in Sheffield. I'd just love to see some of that in the execution. And frankly, if they used something like Dymondwood, the way Buck and BM do, that's a very stable and low maintenance material that still has the right look to it. Heck even the modern synthetic jigged bone looks pretty darned good. A nod to tradition while keeping it modern. I think it would do the piece justice. I think for the most part, they nail it. I just wish that on THIS particular knife, there was a bit more traditional option.
 
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Sprint run Delica! These come up every now and then. I had a Bradley Alias that I almost traded for one of these but I had like three delicas at the time.
 
First off... cchu518, that thing is damned gorgeous.

Second, the "Delica Effect" thread talked me into a Delica. I added an orange scale, plain edge version to my order with the LGS. There goes another $69 down the spyder hole, but seriously, how could I not have one?
 
I just wanted to update this since the search for my first perfect Spyderco has lead me to some good stuff.
It turned out my actual first Spyderco was a Delica 4. BUT based on this thread, I decided my first "fer'serious" Spyderco should be the Blurple G10 Manix 2 S110v.

Boy I couldn't be happier. The knife has impeccable fit/finish, and all the usual praise people heap on it. I won't be redundant by listing it all here, but needless to say it's well deserved.

The part I CAN contribute is a bit of a hard use review. I traded out my lawyer disguise for a week and did a demo/renovation on my buddy's bathroom. I mean stripping that bad boy down to studs and joists, and starting from scratch with a new subfloor all the way up to the ceiling. There were a couple times I needed to make some precision cuts in sheetrock and the Manix 2 S110v was up to the task. In fact, it laughed at it. I was even able to whack the spine with a mallet (lightly) to get a nice clean cut through some 1/2" green board. Stripping wire? no problem. marking a piece of copper pipe to be cut? Sure, the edge dug right into the copper and didn't lose anything. Seemed like i could cut some of the nastiest stuff ever up to and including fiberglass. We had to do a cut out in a fiberglass tub-surround to account for a window. I was able to use the M2 to cut fiberglass which it did not only with precision, but seemed to hold the edge very nicely despite the obviously very silicate rich medium.
After a week of hard work, my M2 was crudded up pretty well, but cleaned up and looks no worse for the wear. It was a great torture test of the knife. Of course, I was a total dweeb and I didn't get pics. But I wanted it out here that this is not just knife that looks great. It's tough as nails, and for those who have the stones to put a $140 knife through some really hard use, it delivers in spades.
 
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